We currently liveaboard and have no shore side residence. Our official address is a PO Box near our marina. We have lived aboard, with no shore side residence for over a year and for six of the last 15 years.
We wanted to finance a 46+ foot newish big name trawler that would be our sole residence. We had provided the following financial info to the lender - 40% down, 800+ credit rating, 35+ year history with the same bank, successful financing and payoff of another expensive boat, two big houses, and many expensive sports cars, financial assets worth many times the value of the boat to be financed, and NO current debt.
The finance company (very large specialist in US Marine financing) reviewed the deal and approved the loan subject to seeing our 1040s and bank statements.
Several days later the lender call to say they had discovered that our address "was just a PO box" and they wanted to know if we had a "real" address.
AH - NO!
They then said they could not finance the boat unless we had a six-month history of living in a "real" shoreside residence with tax bills, utility payments, and rent checks to prove that residence.
Subsequently talked with Key Bank (who financed our previous boat), our credit union (financed a smaller boat and several cars) and they said the same thing - no "real address" with six-month history - no loan.
Then talked to three marine mortgage brokers who contacted all their lenders with our credit info -same story: "no real address" - no loan
The problem seems to be that Dodd-Franck changed the standards for loans and IF a boat is the sole residence then the marine mortgage must conform to all HUD and "normal" residential lending standards. No marine mortgage company has the expertise to deal with those standards.
Another BIG NO-NO in the current lending environment is long term travel outside the United States waters.
We talked some more with the big marine lender and determined that a cheap apartment (not really possible here in San Diego) would get us the loan. We then said something to the effect of:
"We'll be taking the boat to the Sea of Cortez for a couple years and then on thru the Panama Canal and eventually to Florida in a couple more years."
Well - that killed the deal yet again. They will not lend on a boat that is going to be outside US territorial waters for more than six-months a year.
That probably works for east coast boats who can go to Puerto Rico or the USVI to reset the six-month clock. Here on the Left Coast - getting back to US waters means a 750-mile BASH up the Baja coast which I've twice and determined that was one too many.
NO Primary Liveaboards - NO long distance cruising if you want a loan!